wfn.org | Moderator Visits Sheldon Jackson College on a ‘Good News Day'

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org>]

Note #5887 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

8-May-2000
00184

	Moderator Visits Sheldon Jackson College on a ‘Good News Day' 

	Surprise $400,000 bequest improves school's prospects 
			
	by Evan Silverstein

SITKA, Alaska -- The trustees of Sheldon Jackson College, working on a plan
to transform the school into a financially viable institution, got pleasant
news during a May 5 board meeting, and welcomed a special guest from the
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

	Moderator Freda Gardner of the 211th General Assembly was on hand as the
board celebrated a $400,000 bequest to the Presbyterian-related liberal arts
college from the estate of Susan Prince, a former Alaska boarding-school
teacher.

	It was feared last year that the trustees would be forced to close the
275-student institution, Alaska's oldest college, after years of deepening
financial problems. Some board members had favored closing the four-year
school by the end of December. But the executive committee of the
denomination's General Assembly Council (GAC) approved a $490,000 loan in
November, helping Sheldon Jackson stay open through June 30, 2000, the end
of its fiscal year. The board voted in March to keep the school operating
indefinitely and to work to improve its financial condition.

	"I hope you know the pride that the denomination takes in this
institution," Gardner told the trustees. She had stopped here during a tour
of sites that demonstrate Presbyterian mission in the United States. She
said the denomination shared in the school's "agony ... as you were going
through some difficult times."

	The board's chair, former General Assembly moderator the Rev. David L.
Dobler, thanked Gardner, a former Princeton Theological Seminary professor
now in the PC(USA)'s most prominent elected post, for the denomination's
support, adding, "We welcome you not only as moderator but as an educator."

	News of the gift from the Prince estate coincided with commencement
ceremonies for a class of seniors who a few short months ago were unsure
whether there would be a Sheldon Jackson College to graduate from. College
officials said they knew little about Prince but were working to learn more
details.

	Things are looking up for the college, named after a pioneering
Presbyterian missionary.

	"You are here; Sheldon Jackson College is here. And you can both look
forward to a bright future," Interim President C. Carlyle Haaland told
students in his commencement speech. Haaland later promised board members
that he will "address rigorously and as quickly as possible" the short-term
financial needs of Sheldon Jackson.

	In addition to the Prince bequest, Sheldon Jackson officials expect to
receive $100,000 later this month from Sitka officials, as a down payment on
school-owned property the city has earmarked for a fire station. Additional
payments are anticipated later this year.

	"We still have cash flow problems," Haaland told the Presbyterian News
Service, "but I think we'll be OK."

	Gardner is traveling with her vice moderator, the Rev. Floyd Rhodes, who
also serves as interim executive of the Synod of the South Atlantic. She
said "pleas of support and prayer" for the college had echoed across the
Presbyterian Church, which now is feeling a sense of "great thanksgiving for
what you have been and are doing for young people in this spot in the
world."

	The school has served the native people of Alaska since its founding in
1878 as a training center for Tlingit Indians. It is named after Sheldon
Jackson, who as a missionary logged nearly 30,000 miles a year traveling
across the country, often by dogsled, in the mid-1800s, and established
hundreds of churches and schools.

	The sale of Sheldon Jackson-owned property to the National Park Service is
expected to take place this fall and to generate an additional $1.3 million.
Meanwhile, the board has increased room-and-board fees by 2 percent for the
2000-2001 academic year.

	The trustees also have approved the hiring of a development director and
reorganized the school's Long Range Planning and Development Committee into
a board devoted solely to fund-raising on its behalf.

	Gardner and Rhodes toured the campus library and attended a reception for
students, staff and faculty at the Hames Physical Education Facility before
departing the next day for Seattle, Washington. On Sunday, May 7, the
moderator preached to about 90 people at First Presbyterian Church, a
re-development church in Quilcene, Washington. She and Rhodes were to visit
church-sponsored shelter programs in the Seattle area on May 8.

	Also scheduled are worship with Native American congregations in Idaho and
stops in Los Angeles and San Diego for discussions with racial-ethnic and
new immigrant church development pastors and conversations with
Presbyterians engaged in a variety of missions.

	The tour, called Presbyterian Mission USA, was organized by the
denomination's National Ministries Division in cooperation with middle
governing bodies in the locations being visited. It is hoped that similar
trips to Presbyterian-related mission sites around the nation will become a
regular feature of the moderator's annual schedule.

_______________________________________________
pcusaNews mailing list
pcusaNews@pcusa.org

To unsubscribe, go to this web address:
http://pcusa01.pcusa.org/mailman/listinfo/pcusanews